IMC 2013: Sessions
Session 514: Reading for Pleasure?: Paratext and Literacy in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books
Tuesday 2 July 2013, 09.00-10.30
Sponsor: | Department of English Language, University of Glasgow / Glasgow Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, University of Glasgow |
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Organiser: | Johanna Green, School of Critical Studies (English Language), University of Glasgow |
Moderator/Chair: | Jennifer Key, School of English, University of St Andrews |
Paper 514-a | Paratext and Old English Poetry: Examining Reading Practices in the Exeter Book (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Old English, Literacy and Orality, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Printing History |
Paper 514-b | Political Paratext: The Impact of Robert Crowley's Edition of Piers Plowman (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Other, Literacy and Orality, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Printing History |
Paper 514-c | Always a Pleasure?: The Development of Reading Practices as Displayed through the Re-Formation of Medieval Texts (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Other, Literacy and Orality, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Printing History |
Abstract | Paratext has been termed by Genette (1991: 261) as being 'the fringe which constitutes, between the text and what lies outside it, a zone not just of transition, but transaction'. This session seeks to examine this 'zone' by considering the significance of paratext in uncovering evidence of literacy in manuscripts and early printed books. In particular, the session focuses on the transaction between individual texts and their manuscript layout, punctuation, textual division, and compilation, using examples from the Anglo-Saxon to Early Modern periods. It argues that rather than being simply for decorative pleasure, paratextual information can provide evidence of how texts were intended to be read and were subsequently reinterpreted for later audiences. |